Extra benefits for completing night time missions

[crusherven]

I think the groovy music is another bonus for doing night missions.

[gshuford]

Hey, a medal's an increase to bravery, and Chris mentioned making it a bit more important.

I didn't realise that. Also would be kinda cool if night missions increased panic. Maybe that's already in there and I don't realise it?

[Tobbzn]

If there's anything like an attribute boost just for going out after dark, I'd expect boosts for troopers who walk around with their eyes closed for a while,or the Xenonaut Strategic Nocturnal Defence Simulator as I'm calling it.

Ah, thank you. You've given me an opportunity to exercise my favorite argumentation technique; reductio ad absurdum. You see, by the same coin

TUs could be trained in the Xenonaut Strategic bipedal propulsion training programme. Thirty seconds of mandatory jogging every day and even a rookie ranks up. Strength training could be included in this by doing it while wearing armor.

Accuracy and Reflex could be trained in the Light Drone combat simulator, which would take the form of a skeet-shooting range.

I don't think a bravery medal necessarily is what's necessary, but maybe a medal that increases nighttime sight range by 1 to reflect getting used to spotting alien silhouettes in the dark.

[gshuford]

Ah, thank you. You've given me an opportunity to exercise my favorite argumentation technique; reductio ad absurdum. You see, by the same coin

TUs could be trained in the Xenonaut Strategic bipedal propulsion training programme. Thirty seconds of mandatory jogging every day and even a rookie ranks up. Strength training could be included in this by doing it while wearing armor.

Accuracy and Reflex could be trained in the Light Drone combat simulator, which would take the form of a skeet-shooting range.

I don't think a bravery medal necessarily is what's necessary, but maybe a medal that increases nighttime sight range by 1 to reflect getting used to spotting alien silhouettes in the dark.

Well, I was thinking more along the lines of increasing whatever the equivilent of perception is. I haven't looked too closely at the attributes. But I reason that if you gain attributes from day combat, night combat should help out there. That is, learning to rely on other senses rather than sight. While this doesn't negate your ad absurdum point, you still have to apply ad absurdum to the game's current mechanics of going into combat, receiving stat bonuses.

In either case, the fact that your soldiers get better from doing things related to what they get better in is already a mechanic in game. Increasing night sight radius by 1 after X number if night ops is a pretty decent idea, but it doesn't really give an advantage to doing night ops. Even with the bonus, you still have lower sight radius at night so it really doesn't do anything to make the player want to risk going on night missions unless they're just a thrill-seeker.

The most appropriate game mechanic I can think of would probably be a little too much: That would be alter the success of the mission by how long it takes you to respond to the situation. A situation quickly resolved would please a nation more than one where you wait half a day before sending in troops.

[kabill]

There already is a kind of bonus for doing night missions - you get to do the mission.

Some missions, you literally have no choice (terror missions don't wait around)*. For UFO recovery missions, it can sometimes be hard to get round all the sites without encountering a night mission, since the sites seem to time-out quite quickly (doesn't feel like much over 24 hours before they disappear). Meaning if you want to recover all the crash sites from a wave, you either need a second landing team, or you need to accept some night missions. At least, this has been my experience.

So I'm not sure an additional reward is needed.

*I've never tried this, so maybe someone else can answer: does the old OG exploit of targetting the site with a craft to stop it from timing out while you wait until daybreak work in Xenonauts? Just interested to know if GH dealt with that.

[Tobbzn]

It doesn't time out if it's a crash site. Terror sites, however, do time out while you're in flight. At least, during my very first terror event in v18 stable, the city got nuked a few moments before I landed there.

[EchoFourDelta]

Also, random aside. Night vision equipment was nowhere near as ill-advanced or bulky in the period as a few here have made it out to be. Consider the following:

http://i822.photobucket.com/albums/zz146/75MustangII/Misc%20Photos/M14Infrared.jpg

Note also that the "infrared" designation there is does not mean "thermal" in this case; this is a starlight (i.e. "night vision") scope, dated October 1964. Technology took a long walk in 15 years to 1979.

By way of explanation, night vision devices prior to this were active - rather than passive - systems, meaning they required a means of infrared illumination for the "receiver" scope to detect. Systems prior to this one were not yet at the level where they could simply collect enough ambient light to resolve a workable image, requiring the infrared "spotlight" device somewhat similar to the non-visible "flashlight" installed on most modern night vision goggles, such as the AN/PVS-7B (in this example, the flashlight functions as a flashlight normally would, providing illumination in an area where there simply is no ambient light, such as in a shuttered structure, or an underground area with no lighting; it's essentially a non-visible flashlight functioning in the same role for the NVGs as a normal flashlight would for the human eye).

Edited September 2, 2013 by EchoFourDelta

[thothkins]

TUs could be trained in the Xenonaut Strategic bipedal propulsion training programme. Thirty seconds of mandatory jogging every day and even a rookie ranks up. Strength training could be included in this by doing it while wearing armor.

Accuracy and Reflex could be trained in the Light Drone combat simulator, which would take the form of a skeet-shooting range.

Whole programmes have been sold to armies across the world based on less than this! Time to practice those powerpoint slides Tobbzn!

I don't think a bravery medal necessarily is what's necessary, but maybe a medal that increases nighttime sight range by 1 to reflect getting used to spotting alien silhouettes in the dark.

A medal that's also a flashlight! Classy, yet functional!

For night vision increases without dealing with fiddly technology, may I introduce my Carrot Ingestion Performance Enhancement Programme?

[Mordobb]

Well i too avoid night mission like hell.

There s no point to waste a team on it.

I too as some pointed find that the tech tree could be upgraded a lot. (motion scanners, LOW vision googles, IR googles, improved human weaponry, improved human armor) some could be done before we go to laser tech, changeman armor.

But back to the main meat. A medal could be nice, but who would risk his team hide, rookies with potential, for just a medal ? Especially when hiring people with potential get harder and harder.

[Elydo]

Night missions are particularly irritating, But even more so given that currently the scour cars (at least) have no visibility at night. At least until another soldiers uncovers new terrain, then the scout cars view seems to update. Makes them somewhat useless for, well... scouting.

[lemm]

The scout cars have headlights now which makes night fighting a lot more tolerable in my opinion.

I dunno if there should be an extra reward for a nite mission, but I think that the nighttime terror sites should be a lot brighter, since they're supposed to be in heavily urbanized areas, and they are semi-compulsory.

[Mordobb]

The scout cars have headlights now which makes night fighting a lot more tolerable in my opinion.

I dunno if there should be an extra reward for a nite mission, but I think that the nighttime terror sites should be a lot brighter, since they're supposed to be in heavily urbanized areas, and they are semi-compulsory.

Damn Aliens shotings the lamps.

[Dead Dread]

i use to avoid night missions, now i dont even bother checking, just chuck flares everywhere and you'll be fine. oh and for that suspected alien out of flare range, rocket spam >;-)

[lemm]

There was a suggestion in the "ideas for higher difficulty levels" thread that downed craft should stay down for a lot less time on the higher difficulties, thereby necessitating night missions. I thought that was a particularly good way to make the game harder, rather than just increasing alien stats or something simple like that.

[Elydo]

I remember that was what I used incendiary rockets for in the OG. They didn't set enemies on fire and anything in the fire moved out of it too quickly to die, but they provided a shitload of light at long ranges. Dropping one on a long range gribblie had the combined effect of lighting it up and making it run, hopefully into reaction fire.

[Mordobb]

Also, random aside. Night vision equipment was nowhere near as ill-advanced or bulky in the period as a few here have made it out to be. Consider the following:

http://i822.photobucket.com/albums/zz146/75MustangII/Misc%20Photos/M14Infrared.jpg

Note also that the "infrared" designation there is does not mean "thermal" in this case; this is a starlight (i.e. "night vision") scope, dated October 1964. Technology took a long walk in 15 years to 1979.

By way of explanation, night vision devices prior to this were active - rather than passive - systems, meaning they required a means of infrared illumination for the "receiver" scope to detect. Systems prior to this one were not yet at the level where they could simply collect enough ambient light to resolve a workable image, requiring the infrared "spotlight" device somewhat similar to the non-visible "flashlight" installed on most modern night vision goggles, such as the AN/PVS-7B (in this example, the flashlight functions as a flashlight normally would, providing illumination in an area where there simply is no ambient light, such as in a shuttered structure, or an underground area with no lighting; it's essentially a non-visible flashlight functioning in the same role for the NVGs as a normal flashlight would for the human eye).

Basicly this is why i dislike xenonauts being NATO sort of filial.

URSS in some areas was superior and night vision solution was one of them see the famous SVD DRAGUNOV and its IR/iluminated reticle scope.

It wasn t near what it is today, but it worked IR as a bubble that couldbe shot. OK you may shot a CIVIE in the proces but whatever.

Now as for completing Night missions.

I just don t, they bring nothing, they aren t necessary at all, terror site or not.

You already have base invasion for such.

For a medal that give courage? Allmedal give that, so thank you very much, i ll keep my troops ass at mac Donalds bench eating fries, those maybe the very last of my soldiers life.

Edited September 5, 2013 by Mordobb